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Turn on the History Channel Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

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Owned by the A&E networks, the History channel has evolved from showing just historical documentaries to including popular reality series' as well.

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And by all accounts you really should have died Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

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With life comes death. And while the first nervous tic motion brought life, it’s ironic that the second one brought death.

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Though the words we speak are banal
Not one of them's a lie
Not one of them's a lie Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

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While Andrew’s words are simple, the nervous tic motion has transformed and the former meaning has been erased.

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32,569

10 years

I think the lyrics are actually “not one of them’s a lie”…

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Over imbibed
Under the mister
Barely alive we cover the blisters in flannel Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

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On drugs. At the mercy of a new mister (presumably a dealer or purveyor of drugs).

Wearing flannel, as many hobos might:

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Maia101

4 years

What’s interesting about the third line is that it shows this chaotic ‘everything’s fine, it’s okay’ mentality of someone so far gone (“barely alive”), trying to hide or treat their fatal wounds with a washcloth. The fatal wounds could also be interpreted as issues or secrets we try to hide from the world, even when they are poisonous to us.

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4 years

As is said above, “mister” might be suggestive of an imposing male figure (surely Bird was conscious of that implication, and the song is loaded with double meanings), but it is literally referring to a device that functions something like a humidifier, producing a mist.

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3,074

4 years

Several of these annotations mention “drugs” but the substance abuse narrative only makes unambiguous references to alcohol (the “paper sac” and “imbibed,” which denotes drinking).

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john wallis

5 years

“over imbibed” means you drank too much

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7 years

Flannel is a UK term for a cloth you’d dampen and put on your forehead if you had a hangover. Basically what the US would call a ‘washcloth’.

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It's a nervous tic motion of the head to the left
A nervous tic motion of the head
Head to the left
It's a nervous tic motion of the, of the, to the
Left

It's a nervous tic motion of the head to the, of the, of the head of the head to the Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

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Now we see the same nervous tic motion of the orgasming woman that bore life to the being is ironically, the same nervous tic motion that a drug addict exudes.

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2 years

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3 years

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3 years

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Marked this as a stretch ?

4 years

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Marked this as a stretch ?

4 years

This is seriously a stretch. Does anything in the lyrics actually point to this interpretation? These are the same lyrics as the first hook, slightly reconfigured. Where is there any mention of a woman, let alone “an orgasming woman” giving birth?

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He just wants his life back
What's in that paper knapsack
It's what goes undelivered
Undelivered Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

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And here our tale of creationism has taken a turn towards that of addiction and drug purpose.

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3,074

4 years

Also, “undelivered” has taken on an entirely new meaning. In the first verse, a truck has crashed and its contents are literally not delivered. In this verse, we have a hopeless individual who is not delivered in the religious sense of the word: not redeemed or saved.

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3,074

4 years

There’s more going on here. If the line was just “paper sack” then we could say it’s simply alcolholism, but “paper nap sack” is mixing images of a paper bag and a child’s napsack.

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Splayed out on a bath mat
Six miles north of South Platte Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

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South Platte refers to the river running from Colorado to Nebraska.

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4 years

It’s important to note the meticulous parallels between the first verse and the second. Here a body splayed out on the bathroom floor directly parallels the image of the crashed truck in verse one. The structure of the sentences is also a direct inversion: south of North Platte becomes north of South Platte.

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Why are we alive?
And here's how they replied
You're what happens when two substances collide
And by all accounts you really should have died Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

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Andrew uses the metaphor of the multiplier effect and intertwines it with the miracle of life. While someone could be created from the intercourse resulting from individuals tripping on two drugs, we are also borne of the simplest two substances…a sperm and an egg:

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Julian

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2 years

It also could include that only one sperm makes it, thus, by all accounts you really should have died

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3,074

4 years

This is a really narrow interpretation. Bird is pretty precise with his language, and referring to a sperm and an egg as “substances” would be a really loose application of that term. To me, this phrase is more evocative of the spontaneous formation of RNA, which is far more typical of Bird’s typical lyrical focus. It also makes more sense in response to the plural (we, the species. not I, the individual) in the question “Why are we alive?”

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Will

8 years

I got the feeling that “two substances collide”, at least in the “Why are we alive” and “History Channel” respects, is more about speculation on the origin of life, such as chemicals in a primordial soup spontaneously combining to create amino acids.

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3,041

9 years

I disagree. I think that the song is using the metaphor of the big bang, as the singer saw discussed on the History Channel, to describe the aftermath of an automobile accident. The driver survives and is racked with guilt. “He just wants his life back.” And becomes an alcoholic… “paper nap sack,” “over imbibed.” He is what is left of two substances that collided, apparently, like the big bang, by chance.

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Overprescribed
Under the mister Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

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America has long since been overprescribed. Whether its ritalin, xanax, you name it. We’ve come to rely on drugs to cure our woes, all under the guise of what the “mister” says.

For Andrew, this could extend beyond the drug meaning…to the things we simply rely upon to get us through our daily lives.

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10 years

The song is not referencing a person with “mister”; it is referring to a water mister, used to provide moisture to a fragile or delicate specimen. In this case, the fragile specimen is the average, delicate, overprescribed 21st century man/woman.

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Stretched out on a tarmac
Six miles south of North Platte Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

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